Folklore of Italy

[143] In 1925, Benito Mussolini's government set up the Opera Nazionale Dopolavoro (OND) or National Recreational Club as a means of promoting sports and cultural activities and one of its accomplishments was a wide survey of folk music and dance in Italy at that time.

In September 1945 OND was replaced by a new organization, the Ente Nazionale Assistenza Lavoratori (ENAL), headquartered in Rome.

Italy's rough geography and the historic dominance of small city states has allowed quite diverse musical styles to coexist in close proximity.

The modern understanding of Italian folk music has its roots in the growth of ethnomusicology in the 1940s and 1950s and in the resurgence of regionalism in Italy at the time.

Today, Italy's folk music is often divided into several spheres of geographic influence, a classification system proposed by Alan Lomax in 1956 and often repeated since.

A wooden puppet depicting the Befana
Folkloristic reconstruction of the Company of Death led by Alberto da Giussano who is preparing to carry out the charge during the battle of Legnano at the Palio di Legnano 2014
Val Camonica witch trials . Translation of the inscription: "In memory of the Federici di Sonico accused of heresy and of the victims of the burnings for witchcraft in the 16th century in Val Camonica ".
Monaciello
The corridor of the castle of Montebello, in province of Rimini , presumed home of the ghost of Azzurina
Incubus
Caladrius
Tarantasio
Ozena
Bisso Galeto
Columbus Breaking the Egg by William Hogarth
Bas relief representing the scrofa semilanuta on the walls of Palazzo della Ragione, Milan
Etruscan-Roman reservoir in Chiusi , Tuscany , alleged Tomb of Lars Porsena
Access to the Gammazita well
Marco Polo recorded his 24 years-long travels in the Book of the Marvels of the World , introducing Europeans to Central Asia and China. [ 111 ]
Christopher Columbus leads an expedition to the New World, 1492. His voyages are celebrated as the discovery of the Americas from a European perspective, and they opened a new era in the history of humankind and sustained contact between the two worlds.
Giuseppe Garibaldi during the Expedition of the Thousand holding a flag of Italy . He is considered one of the greatest generals of modern times. [ 112 ] Garibaldi is also known as the " Hero of the Two Worlds " because of his military enterprises in South America and Europe. [ 113 ]
Italian folk dance in Marche
Italian folk musicians performing in Edinburgh , Scotland